So this whole deal started with me buying a daily driver for 1008 dollars from the original owner, i wasn't going to mess with it. Quickly after i bought it i tore it apart and over the past 4 years its had 4 different redblocks in it, none of which ran, the last one that was installed was a really nice 16 valve but i thought why settle for a leaky underpowered 16 valve 4 cylinder that im probably going to scatter all over the freeway. So i sold all of my redblock stuff and bought a lm7, and that is where all the chaos started...

ENGINE/TRANSMISSION
So initially i built the car with the intention of doing track days and autocross events, i had no intentions of turocharging it. I bought a complete Lm7 off craigslist for 400 bucks and slapped a holley oil pan on it and using sts mounts, behind the trans i threw on a american powertrains t56 magnum close ratio gearbox and stuffed it in.

at this point i was over the moon, except i ran into a few issues with the install, first, the engine mounts did not clear the brand new zf rack i had in the car after trying to shift it over and mess around with it i decided to buy a junkyard trw/can/whatever leaky pos the 240s come with. Also i could not for the life of me get the recommended hooker engine swap headers to clear the steering shaft. i ground the **** out of the header, tried shifting the column over and nothing would work. so i ended up buying a solid steering shaft from coleman racing and threw it in there and it was a super tight fit still but it cleared. Luckily the t56 cleared the tunnel with no issues which was cool..... Then came the debacle, as some of you on here know and can see in my signature, i bought a 1995 C4 corvette from the junkyard with a "bad clutch". I got the car for around 1500 bucks after it was all said and done, it was a lt1 300hp/340tq 6 speed car. So now i have 2 cars that can be used on the track that are v8 stick shift cars and the corvette will always out handle the volvo in every way and its running and driving already. Even though the ls in the volvo is a newer engine, it still does not make the power and torque in n/a form like the vette does. So i ripped the t56 out and sold it and bought a 4l80e from the junkyard for 100 bucks, slapped in a hd2 kit and started over. I flipped the hooker swap headers around and built this.

for the turbo i decided to go with a borg warner s366 clone from vs racing. now its a small single turbo for the 5.3 but it will compliment the small zo6 cam. I mounted the turbo as close as i could to the passenger side cylinder head just so i could have a tight setup. i see so many build where people do turbo ls cars and there is piping and **** all over the engine bay and its just so damn ugly and unneccesary. Also with the turbo in this location the intercooler piping is a piece of cake, for the inter cooler i went wiith a fairly small ebay unit, i trimmed a little bit out of the core support and used a piece of angle iron and mounted it to the front bumper shock supports, i took the upper to lower core support/horn bracket brace out and cut it and supported the upper core support to the top of the ic. I located the inter cooler as far forward as i could to prevent heat soak and it works good, even on hot days i never see iats go above 130 degrees. For the radiator i used a 85-87 c4 corvette radiator and cut the rad support straight across, the radiator is huge and works great, also its only about 100 bucks shipped on ebay.

i put a water meth kit in there for extra insurance, for the fuel system i ran new -6 feed and return lines to a vac referenced regulator in the engine bay so i could have consistent fuel pressure, i installed a walbro 450lph pump in the tank and ran new wiring to it to prevent fuel starvation. at this point the car was all ready to go!!!!!

It was at this point i suffered a major setback, i fired the car up and i was excited, i let it run and idle and warm up to temp, at this point i checked my gauges and everything was looking spot on, i reved it up a few times and just lissened to the turbo scream, i let it go back to idle and went into the house to grab a celebration beer. On the way back out to my garage i here a noise that sounds a awful lot like the engine is about to blow up, i ran into the garage and shut the car off. i sat and stared at it for like ten seconds wondering what happened then i fired it up again, and its go a nasty knock and no oil pressure. i go into the engine bay and unhook the injectors and crank it off the battery and i watch the balancer spin and it is all over the place, now when i bought the engine it did not have a balancer on it so i used one i had laying around in my bin of lsextras. i removed the balancer and cranked it again and the damn crank snout is walking back and fourth. As soon as i saw that i jumped on craigslist and ebay to find another engine. It must have been in a nasty front end crash or something. I ripped the engine and transmission out as soon as i as soon as that happened and was scouring the interwebs for leads. the next day at work i saw a customer drive up with a 2006 Chevrolet express 3500 and i thought he was coming in for a service, well turns out he was buying a brand new truck and was trading the express van in, so i went to the sales manaer and asked him about the van, he told me that he was going to send it to the auction, i asked if i could drive it, it had a very low 193k on it and it ran and shifted great and it had the mighty lq4 and 4l80e. so i told him my situation and he sold it to me with a junk slip for 1500 bucks, enter
swamp monster 1.0!

i steam cleaned the engine and started stripping it down

i was working so fast i really didnt have time to do much as far as documenting goes, i threw in a ls6 cam and springs ls9 headgaskets and swapped on the holley oil pan. i decided to use this 4l80e instead because i knew it worked, so i did another hd 2 kit in it. and fitting this transmission inside the 240 chassis is a mission. i had to hammer the trans tunnel in about 2 inches on each side. Swedish sheet metal 0 Swedish man with a sledgehammer 1. So i lugged the engine and trans home and threw it in the car and fired it up all in about 6 hours. i decided that i did not want to use the trans cooler in the chingchong radiator that i had bought so i installed a hayden trans cooler with a temp switch in it to automatically control the fan.

i didnt get very far with this engine either, i had the car towed over to my dads shop where he built this bitchen 3 inch turbo back exhaust with a single 3 inch magnaflow out back.

I lowered the car down ready for burnouts! drove the car around and it was a blast, the rear suspension was so bad it would just shred the tires on any real throttle input but it was great. Then the car lost oil pressure...... i limped the car back home and put a mechanical gauge on it and verified that yep no oil pressure. So i bought a new melling oil pump, high pressure/stock volume. I changed the oil pump in the car and got it back together andddddd 30 psi cold pressure
and it would drop to 5 when the oil temp hit 120. Great so out we go again!

what i found was the 2 rear most cam bearings had spun as well as the rear cover gasket being blown out..... great, thats what i get for slamming things together in a hurry, so i had new cam bearings thrown in and had the engine hot tanked and reused everything, this was also less then a week before the davis volvo show which i had to make it too. i opened up the ring gaps a little and honed the cylinders and slammed it back together

got the car all back together and had my dad build a wastegate dump pipe, i decided to have the wastegate welded into the housing to simplify everything

here it is now in its current form, i just finished switching the car over to ms3x and i absolutely love it, also i changed to a ls3 style fuel rail because my old fuel rail was completely rusted out. so for now that is the entire engine/trans saga fiasco. I have close to 6k on it and i absolutely love driving the car, its a great cruiser and it can do some wicked burnout.

DRIVETRAIN AND BRAKES
So i quickly realized that i was going to need to upgrade everything on the chassis due to the added weight and power so first thing on the list was a 8.8 swap. i went to pick and pull on half off day and bought a 8.8 complete for 102 bucks.
so the first thing i did was rip the 1031 axle out and make a jig for all the brackets to transfer it over to the 8.8.

Now i did forget to take picture on the shortening process but believe me its super simple, the axle needs to be shortened 3 inches on one side, so you just grab 2 short axle shafts while you are at the yard, i actually took a short axle shaft out of another explorer and threw it in the axle i was going to buy so i wouldnt get charged for the additional axle shaft. Now to shortening the one side, i did it on my 30 minute lunch break at work. so you need to take 3 inches out. well if cut on both sides of the leaf spring perch it equals out to exactly 3 inches, so i scribed the axle in 4 spots so i could line it back up. i stuck the cut end back on the short axle shaft and slid it into the cut tube. lined the marks up and centered it with 2 pieces of angle iron and some massive hose clamps and then i just welded it back together. crude i know but there are no wierd noises coming from the rear end and the axle seals are not leaking so im going to call that a win. then transfer everything over. you gotta get tricky with the brackets because the od of the axle tubes is wayyy bigger then the 1031.

then its ready to install after a quick fog of paint. for the rear brakes i am just using the stock explorer brakes. i am using 3.5 inch long arp wheel studs in the back as well. i got lines made at a hydraulic shop to convert the stock volvo line to use with the 8.8. i am using just a single brake line feeding the rear and it seems to be working well for the time being. then i had to tackle the rear suspension. i wanted to go with a coilover style setup so i could have some more adjustability. i went with strange engineering coil overs and had my dad weld them in and fit them. so far they have been absolutely awesome.

while people may say this method of mounting is not ideal. it works just fine in the real world. I had built short strut coilovers for it years back so i will just post up a picture i found of those in the building process, i used saab bilstien struts, made my own upper strut plate with a spherical bearing insert and i used qa1 sleeves that i turned down on the ID to slide right over the volvo strut housings, the strut inserts do need to be replaced, right now im running 425lb up front and 225 out back, 10 inch springs at both ends i also got a set of roll center correctors from BNE (my boi!) and installed those as well and set the steering to the middle setting.

now for the brake debacle, i threw on a set of rx7 brakes, this is the second time ive used them and its the second time ive been somewhat disappointed with them, i decided to just go with ats brakes from amazon.com, 74.50 shipped per caliper sooooo how could you say no.

now i have gotten alot of flack for these wheels but the reality of it is, they are 207 dollars shipped from summitracing, they fit the big brakes and they are dual pattern, 5x108 and 5x114.3, and they are 17x7, so they are very economical and add to the sleeper factor of the car. all of the bushings have been replaced with poly and it works very well, the car stops great and handles very very well so over all i am happy with that, i am going to do a gear swap on the car because i am starting to here a slight hum after i have been trashing on it so i am thinking the crush sleeve is going bye bye. i am going to be swapping to a 3.27 gear which will help mpgs as well.

Can you give some details about how you handled the engine management? I'm trying to get my head around the best way to get the fuel injection and timing to play nice with the car.

Honestly it really depends on what you want to do with the car, if it's going to be mostly stock I would say use a stock computer and swap harness. I went with the plug and play megasquirt box because it's easier to deal with in my opinion if you want to tune it yourself. Hptuners and the stock pcm are capable of great power but it seems really complicated to me as compared to megasquirt. Also if you are going to have a shop near by tune the car it may be wise to ask them what they are most comfortable with. That being said this is what I have.http://www.efisource.com/shop/packag...d-box-and-tcu/

Because I decided to just make the car more of a cruiser/drag car and honestly I think anything over 400whp with a stick shift is retarded. If it was n/a I would have the t56 but I have a end goal of 600whp at some point so I picked the auto.

Love mine, wouldn't have had it any other way. Rebuilding autos and replacing aw71's and t5's aren't cheap either. Plenty of guys run 600 and more hp cars with t56 . There's a reason why it came in 400hp and up cars from the factory. Many more gear set options, and much more upgrades available. But to each his own.

__________________
If you had the audacity , to doubt my veracity, and even to insinuate, that I scrupulously prevaricate ,such an insignificant question. Then you must hallucinate before you comprehend.

Honestly it really depends on what you want to do with the car, if it's going to be mostly stock I would say use a stock computer and swap harness. I went with the plug and play megasquirt box because it's easier to deal with in my opinion if you want to tune it yourself. Hptuners and the stock pcm are capable of great power but it seems really complicated to me as compared to megasquirt. Also if you are going to have a shop near by tune the car it may be wise to ask them what they are most comfortable with. That being said this is what I have.http://www.efisource.com/shop/packag...d-box-and-tcu/

Any opinions on megasquirt vs microsquirt? For the Volvo, I have not decided on a transmission, but in the Camaro I'm building now I have a 700r4. So I do not need the computer to control the transmission right now. When I get to the Volvo, I'll probably cheap out and run whatever 4l60e I can pull out of a truck.

What did you have to do with the factory wiring? Is any of the original wiring in place or did you replace the entire engine bay wiring? Does the LS and Megasquirt talk to the factory dash or did you replace your dash?

Sorry if I'm asking a lot of questions, but I do a lot of research before I start projects.

Any opinions on megasquirt vs microsquirt? For the Volvo, I have not decided on a transmission, but in the Camaro I'm building now I have a 700r4. So I do not need the computer to control the transmission right now. When I get to the Volvo, I'll probably cheap out and run whatever 4l60e I can pull out of a truck.

What did you have to do with the factory wiring? Is any of the original wiring in place or did you replace the entire engine bay wiring? Does the LS and Megasquirt talk to the factory dash or did you replace your dash?

Sorry if I'm asking a lot of questions, but I do a lot of research before I start projects.

the harness is completely standalone, i made my own gauge cluster that i will post up later tonight, honestly between the micro and megasquirt goldbox its a huge difference, the driveability on the micro was not that great, also it has no iac provision so you have to set the idle higher and i had a issue with it where the afrs would swing all over the place while driving on the freeway, during wot pulls it worked fine. that being said the micro is very limited as far as inputs and outputs are concerned and it was just generally a pain in the ass. Also the micro is batch fire fuel and waste spark and with 3.73 rear gears it got aweful gas mileage. You can buy the ms3 goldbox and use it without the microsquirt trans controller if you go with a older transmission. its seriously like 5 wires to hook it up and get it running. i highly recommend just spending the extra money on the gold box because you probably wont be satisfied with the microsquirt. With the goldbox in my car now it starts and drives like a stock chevy pickup which is really nice.

I would save a bunch of $$$$ by not bothering with the T56 idea. Those things are not cheap.

its really popular to do the 350z transmissions now days because you can get them for dirt cheap. like i said if i was keeping the car N/A i would have kept the 6 speed. However i have my 6 speed corvette which is a good compromise if i was a v8 stick car to thrash.

Love mine, wouldn't have had it any other way. Rebuilding autos and replacing aw71's and t5's aren't cheap either. Plenty of guys run 600 and more hp cars with t56 . There's a reason why it came in 400hp and up cars from the factory. Many more gear set options, and much more upgrades available. But to each his own.

for sure, no doubt they can hold the power, its just extremely expensive to get one around here. you can get a 4l80e for cheap, the last one i bought i paid 100 bucks for it from the junkyard and threw a 100 dollar hd2 kit in it and it will probably last forever. So economically for a high powered turbo ls car the 4l80e just makes the most sense to me

for sure, no doubt they can hold the power, its just extremely expensive to get one around here. you can get a 4l80e for cheap, the last one i bought i paid 100 bucks for it from the junkyard and threw a 100 dollar hd2 kit in it and it will probably last forever. So economically for a high powered turbo ls car the 4l80e just makes the most sense to me

Auto is faster anyways in a straight line. It's not about the HP anyways. Torque is what kills transmissions. You could have 1000HP and 500ft-lb of torque, and a transmission will last forever.

__________________Member: TBCCS
"The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it.” -H.L. Mencken

Quote:

Originally Posted by 240240

Yes, but I keep having the dream of shoving the Cocaine up my ass!

Quote:

Originally Posted by golgothan

Ohh god no, I'd rather eat hot diarrhea than drive a 7/9

Quote:

Originally Posted by RedFridge

You sons of bitches are the biggest thread de-railers in forum history. Any forums history.

Auto is faster anyways in a straight line. It's not about the HP anyways. Torque is what kills transmissions. You could have 1000HP and 500ft-lb of torque, and a transmission will last forever as long as you don't have traction.